


it's a shame that we're not soulmates ('cause if i didn't know better i'd say this feels pretty good)

by sevensevan



Category: Glee
Genre: Angst, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-12-13 22:44:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11769960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevensevan/pseuds/sevensevan
Summary: It only happens once.





	it's a shame that we're not soulmates ('cause if i didn't know better i'd say this feels pretty good)

**Author's Note:**

> who's back with more pointless faberry angst? that's right. this bitch. i'm not even gonna try to figure out where this fits into canon; it's not like the show has any continuity anyway. title is from i exist i exist i exist by flatsound. it's a beautiful line, and i wish i could write something better for it, but this is the best i could do. c'est la vie. enjoy.

It only happens once.

It occurs in a bathroom, which, Rachel later muses, is rather fitting. It seems as though everything important between the two of them happens in a bathroom.

She’s cleaning the slushie out of her hair in the sink. She had nearly dodged this one; it only caught the side of her head, missing most of her face and all of her clothes. The blue sludge is almost entirely gone, and she’s tying her hair back to clean the last of it off her face, when the door opens.

She doesn’t bother looking up until a familiar voice says, “Berry.” It’s Quinn. Of course it’s Quinn. Rachel stares into her reflection and sighs heavily, unsure if the Quinn she’ll see when she turns around will throw insults and angry words her way, or if it will be the Quinn she’s seen only a few times before, broken and beaten down and thoroughly exhausted by the world.

It’s neither. This Quinn is standing by the next sink over, arms crossed, gazing at her with a foreign, almost tender expression. She’s soft-eyed and hesitant, and the shy look in her eyes causes the strangest feeling in Rachel’s chest, like her lungs are suddenly too large for her ribcage.

“Quinn,” Rachel greets in return, hands falling from her hair to her sides, where they twist at the fabric of her sweater nervously. Neither of them speak for the longest time, and Rachel wants to look away, to break this bizarre tension between them, to pull her eyes away from Quinn’s and just walk away. She can’t, though, and even as her brain screams at her to _leave, leave now_ , something in her doesn’t want to.

Quinn steps forward, not breaking eye contact, not shattering this trance that seems to be gripping them both, and picks up the damp paper towel Rachel had set on the edge of the sink. She reaches out, taking Rachel’s chin in one hand between her thumb and the side of her forefinger and tilting her face just slightly, not enough to break their stare. She gently uses the towel in her other hand to clean the last bit of slushie from Rachel’s face.

The softness of Quinn’s hands and the way their eye contact never fully breaks intensifies that feeling in Rachel’s chest. She parts her lips, as if to say something, but the words die before they’re even formed. Quinn sets the paper towel aside, her other hand not leaving Rachel’s face. This gentleness, this _caring_ is something that Rachel has never experienced before from anyone, and certainly not from Quinn. It’s… _intimate_.

She isn’t entirely sure who moves forward first. Maybe it’s Quinn acting on whatever impulse had caused her to come this close to Rachel in the first place. Maybe it’s Rachel, spurred on by the intimacy of the moment and caught up in the breathless, lightheaded feeling Quinn’s proximity is causing her.

Regardless of who starts it, it ends the same way. Rachel’s eyes fall shut, Quinn’s lips press against hers, and suddenly they are the only two people in the universe that matter.

It’s just a kiss. It’s not charged or heated or rushed or sexual or even particularly romantic, given their surroundings.

But _God_ , it feels like a revelation.

Quinn’s hand slides onto her cheek, her little finger falling just underneath Rachel’s jawline and causing goosebumps to spread from the point of contact down her neck. Her other hand is on Rachel’s waist, holding her closer.

Rachel just tangles her fingers in the hem of Quinn’s shirt and loses herself in the way this moment is making her feel endless.

It ends far too soon, with Quinn pulling back just slightly to breathe and the spell that they’re both under suddenly shattering.

Quinn stumbles backward, hands flying off of Rachel, eyes wide with shock. Still, neither of them speak, staring at each other. For a moment, Rachel thinks she sees the way her world is tilting wildly on its axis mirrored in Quinn’s eyes.

Then Quinn turns away, gripping the side of a sink as if for support and refusing to return Rachel’s stare.

“This never happened,” Quinn says softly, eyes still averted.

“What?” Rachel murmurs, barely able to speak. “Quinn…”

“This never happened,” Quinn repeats, firmer this time. “Understand?”

“You can’t pretend you didn’t feel that,” Rachel says.

“Rachel, please,” Quinn begs, turning her pleading gaze back to Rachel. “I can’t– _please_.”

“I can’t act like this doesn’t change anything,” Rachel insists, more desperate than anything. She doesn’t understand what just happened or why her heart is pounding at her ribs like a captured animal at its cage, but between the way the floor feels unsteady beneath her and the way her hands are shaking, she knows that this moment will haunt her for the rest of her life if she lets Quinn walk away.

“You want to be an actress, don’t you?” Quinn asks wryly. “Here’s your chance.”

“ _Quinn_ –“

“Please,” Quinn says, gazing at Rachel with more earnestness than Rachel has ever seen from her before. “You know this would never work.” Rachel wants to argue, but the resignation in Quinn’s eyes keeps her words from finding their way out. “It’s better this way,” she continues. “Better to let this go before it can hurt us both.”

“Quinn,” Rachel says again, because it’s all she can find the strength to say. Quinn steps forward, reaching out and tucking a stray strand of hair behind Rachel’s ear. She lets her fingertips slowly trace Rachel’s jaw before she drops her hand to her side.

“I’ll see you around, Berry,” she murmurs, turning and leaving the bathroom.

It was just a kiss. It only happened once.

Rachel would give anything to relive it and say something, _anything_ to make Quinn stay.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you liked it. the first part of my multichapter faberry au should be up by the end of august, so keep an eye out. my writing tumblr is @thoughts-into-ink, and my multifandom tumblr is @daisys-quake. feel free to leave me a request on either of those or in the comments if you have any faberry ideas you'd like me to write. leave kudos and a comment; i thrive on validation. til next time.


End file.
